Things have been relatively quiet from the house that mouse built. Since the merger of Pixar, and John Lasseter taking over as head of the animation studios, there’s hasn’t been a public road map to the direction Lasseter was going to be taking the group. Looking at what is on the schedule, I definitely feel like John Lasseter was the man for this job.
For years the only success Disney was seeing was from Pixar, so the $7.4 billion dollar merger that happened after Eisner’s exit, and Robert Iger’s entrance, was probably the best move Disney made as far as their Animation arm goes. If they’d let the one thing that made them famous die, then what would Disney have to live for, their theme parks?
-Pixars first 3D title, ‘Up,’ is set for release May 29, 2009, from there on forward, every Pixar title will be in 3D. They will be going back and rereleasing some of their older catalog in 3D as well. Classics like ‘Toy Story’ 1 & 2 will be released in 2009 and 2010 respectively in 3D.
-‘Cars’ will be coming back to theaters in the Summer of 2012, marking the first sequel outside of the ‘Toy Story’ franchise.
-‘Toy Story 3’ (YES!) will be returning to theaters, June 18, 2010, with plot details under wraps, the only bit of news is that at this point, Andy (the toys owner) is heading off to college.
-But CGI animation via Pixar wasn’t the only thing on the slate, when Lasseter took over, he spoke about his desire to bring back traditional hand drawn animation. ‘The Princess and the Frog,’ from the Directors of ‘Aladdin’ and ‘Little Mermaid’ is set for a Christmas 2009 release.
-‘Bolt’ formerly known as ‘American Dog’ with John Travolta and Miley Cyrus will be coming by Thanksgiving. The film is about a Dog who was a former star on an action television show who actually believes he has super[canine] powers.
-Disney’s long in development adaptation of Rapunzel is on track for Christmas 2010.
-2011 has two films on schedule, ‘Newt’ a romantic comedy from Gary Rydstrom, and ‘The Bear and the Bow’ from Brenda Chapman, who will be the first female to helm a Pixar film.
-The final film on the slate is an adaptation from a Philip K Dick short story, ‘King of Elves,” coming from Disney Animation Studios in 2012.
It’s clearly a busy time over at Disney, now all we gotta do is sit and wait for this slew of releases between now, and 2012. I don’t know about you, but I’m gonna go watch Toy Story.